The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has warned the European Commission about possible tax obstacles to cross-border fund mergers once the future Ucits IV directive is implemented, says Ignites Europe. Asset management companies may be deterred from using cross-border mergers.
Agefi Switzerland reports that a migration of Brevan Howard to the shores of Lake Geneva, where it has planned to move 250 of its staff, though its operational activities will remain in London, is anything but a surprise. 18 months ago, in an informal meeting with the FSA (Financial Services Authority), the directors of Brevan Howard put pressure on the British government with the announcement that they were studying a departure from the United Kingdom if their fears about a large increase in taxes were confirmed. For the moment, Brevan Howard has limited itself to a succinct and evasive statement: “The parent company of the Brevan Howard group regularly studies commercial opportunities, and is preparing to move into offices in several jurisdictions, including Switzerland.” Brevan already has offices in New York, Washington, Hong Kong, Dublin, and Tel Aviv.
The online broker Fortuneo Belgium has bought the Belgian business of Cortal Consors, a unit of BNP Paribas. The acquisition price has not been disclosed, L’Echo reports.
The German conglomerate MAN SE announced on Wednesday in a regulated statement that the American management firm Invesco had notified it that it had passed the 3%, 5% and 10% thresholds in its capital, and on that date controlled 10.42% of voting rights in the business.
Unione di Banche Italiane (UBI Banca) has sold its depository banking activities, serving more than EUR19bn in assets, primarily held on behalf of UBI Pramerica, the third-largest Italian asset management firm, to RBC Dexia Investor Services (RBC Dexia). The agreement includes several commitments from the corresponding bank, including one to provide payment agency services in Italy for Luxembourg Sicavs and UCITS funds in Dublin, if clients agree to the transfer. The transaction affects EUR93m in assets, and UBI Banca will earn a net capital gain of EUR80m, and a 10 basis point increase to its core tier 1 ratio. The operation, which will be concluded in the first half of 2010, is wholly financed with internal funds from RBC Dexia.
Agefi Switzerland reports that the manager Asoka Woehrmann, head of the Retail Fixed Income division at DWS, estimates that emerging market debt represents a new area of opportunities. Countries included in this universe are on the whole net exporters with trade surpluses. South Korea, for example, which at the beginning of the year underwent a 50% fall in its industrial production, is recovering faster than the United States, Germany, Italy, or France. China’s efforts to support its economy have never been so important. “As proof, the crisis has literally wiped the Icelandic kronur off the map of global currencies, but the Brazilian real, the Chinese yuan and the Korean won are doing well. Emerging debt is no longer hot finance.”
From 1 October, the independent management firm GAM Holding Ltd has separated from Julius Baer Group, and its shares are now listed on the Swiss stock market SIX, under the acronym GAM. GAM Holding controls GAM Group AG and Swiss & Global Asset Management AG.
Asian Investor reports that Barclays Global Investors has opened a branch office in China, and that iShares now has a Chinese equivalent, whose name consists of two Chinese characters meaning “firm foundation” and “prosperity.” BGI would naturally like to develop its presence on the Chinese market, but many obstacles have yet to be overcome. The Chinese government and the Shanghai stock exchange have declared a desire to introduce international ETF funds to the local market in the near future. But Chinese regulators have made suggestions that they would give priority to Chinese businesses and their products before letting foreign competitors in on the market.
On Wednesday, Martin Currie announced the appointment of Dominik Issler as country head for Switzerland; he will join the firm on 4 January 2010. He will report to Eric Bateman, director, head of European sales. He was previously CEO of Fortis Investments/ABN Amro Asset Management for Switzerland.
Agefi reports, citing a study by International Financial Services London (IFSL), that the asset management sector contributed 0.65% of British GNP last year, or GBP8.4bn.
The fund management firm for Mutua Madrileña, Mutuactivos, last week launched the Mutuafondo Bonos Financieros fund. The product invests in bonds from European banks and insurers, which is a more conservative way of betting on the financial sector than through investment in equities, Expansión reports. The fund, which has already attracted EUR100m, is managed by Joaquín Álvarez-Borrás; securities in the portfolio will be rated at least BBB-, one notch above junk bonds, but the manager will focus on the leaders in each country. Until 15 October, subscriptions will carry no front-end fee. After that date, Mutuactivos will charge a 3% entry fee at subscription or in case of redemption after less than three years.
Thames River and Jupiter are launching new offshore products on the British and European markets, according to Investment Week. Thames River will offer two long/short funds in the first half of 2010, directed by Joel Amsellem and Gaurav Bamania. The two UCITS III vehicles will be domiciled in Dublin. Jupiter, for its part, has launched a new vehicle entitled Global Opportunities, as a sub-fund of its Global fund, domiciled in Luxembourg. The fund is dedicated to institutional clients, but the minimal investment is set at GBP1,000. The fund is primarily invested in international equities, and is benchmarked against the MSCI World, and will be managed by Malcolm Millar, manager of European Income unit trusts, and Ben Surtees, manager of Asian unit trusts and Asia Pacific Sicav funds.
SAC Capital, the USD16bn hedge fund group, has invested in a new London-based fund managed by one of its former traders, says the Financial Times. RWC Partners’ new US Absolute Alpha fund, run by Mike Corcell (ex-Threadneedle), is expected to launch on Thursday, according to people familiar with the situation. The fund has raised USD350m and should get a further USD200m.
Assets under management in the United Kingdom contracted by 12% last year, to a total of GBP3.7trn, International Financial Services London (IFSL), a body that promotes British financial services worldwide, reports. This contraction follows five consecutive years of increases, averaging 8%. Poor returns, falling subscriptions and redemptions to investors were to blame for this contraction. Initial indicators for 2009 show that the sector has begun to recover, with a 14% increase in January-July in assets in retail funds domiciled in the United Kingdom. IFSL reports that two thirds of assets in 2008 were held by institutionals, while 16% were represented by retail funds, and 9% were in hedge funds, while the remainder corresponded to private clients. Profit margins for fund managers fell to 23%, from 32% in 2007.
Dreyfus Corporation, an affiliate of BNY Mellon Asset Management, has announced the launch of two funds of funds. The Dreyfus Satellite Alpha Fund will invest in mutual funds advised by Dreyfus, which will themselves invest in non-traditional asset classes such as commodities, currencies, and real estate. For its part, the Dreyfus Diversified Global Fund will invest in US and foreign equities mutual funds advised by Dreyfus.
Baring Asset Management has announced that it will participate in the ABC of Bonds roadshow in the United Kingdom along with Axa Investment Managers and Cazenove Capital Management to popularise investment in bond funds with IFAs. The shows will be held in fifteen cities in the country, including London, Cardiff and Edinburgh, from the 17th to the 27th of November. It will reach about 400 IFAs.
According to sources close to the investor cited by Reuters, the sovereign fund China Investment Corp (USD200bn in assets) is planning to invest USD600-700m each in three distressed funds in the United States, of which one is from Goldman Sachs, and one from Oaktree Capital.
In the first eight months of the year, US bond funds attracted a net USD209.1bn, while net subscriptions to equities funds were limited to USD15.2bn, according to statistics from Morningstar, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Nine out of the ten funds which have seen the strongest net inflows are bond products.
Lyxor Asset Management announced on 29 September that it now has nine hedge funds on its managed account platform. Since January 2009, Lyxor has regularly increased the diversification of its investment universe, adding a new hedge fund in April, one in June, one in July, and four in August. Since the beginning of the year, assets under management on the platform have increased by USD3bn. The most recent fund, launched in September, is the Apollo Distressed Fund, which deploys an event-driven and risk arbitrage strategy.
GLG Partners has launched a new fund which is primarily aimed at British and European distressed firms, Hedge Week reports. The fund favours tradeable and liquid shares in firms engaged in long and difficult restructuring processes, which are generally prized by distressed activists. The fund, which has about USD300m in assets, had been managed internally since July 2008. But returns of 84% since January have motivated GLG to launch a special product for external investors.
In August, according to statistics from the German association BVI, the asset management industry overall saw net redemptions of EUR1.05bn, following net inflows of EUR3.13bn in July and EUR3.61bn in the corresponding month of last year. This result is primarily imputable to open-ended money market funds, which saw net outflows of EUR3.04bn, after EUR5.86bn in outflows already in July, and, to a lesser extent, to bond funds, from which net redemptions totalled EUR765m, compared with net inflows of EUR979m the previous month. In the first eight months of the year, institutional funds have seen inflows of EUR6.3bn, compared with EUR11.63bn in January-August 2008, while open-ended securities funds saw net outflows of EUR3.64bn, compared with net subscriptions of USD17.65bn. Open-ended equities funds attracted USD8.86bn in January-August 2009 (compared with USD538m), while money market funds saw outflows of USD19.96bn (compared with net subscriptions of USD4.4bn). Bond funds have notably seen outflows of USD1.51bn (compared with USD3.11bn), while real estate funds attracted USD3.04bn, compared with USD5.78bn.
ETFs have been by far the largest area of growth in inflows for funds on sale in Germany since the beginning of the year: between them, Barclays Global Investors (with its iShares brand), Commerz Derivatives Funds (ComStage), Deutsche Bank (with db x-trackers) and Deka (with ETFlab) have attracted a total of EUR5.13bn in January-August, while open-ended securities funds as a whole saw net outflows of EUR3.64bn. db x-trackers stands out with inflows of EUR2.96bn, ahead of ETFlab, with EUR1.35bn, while ComStage and iShares products have attracted EUR573.2m and EUR248.3m, respectively. Thanks to db x-trackers, the DB/DWS group is the only one of the major actors to post net subscriptions (of EUR1.44bn), while Deka (savings banks) has seen outflows of EUR5.42bn. Allianz Global Investors has seen net redemptions of EUR2bn, while Pioneer (UniCredit) and Union Investment (co-operative banks) show outflows of EUR964.7m and EUR815m. Only two actors show assets of over EUR100bn as of 31 August: DB?DWS, with EUR132.03bn, and Deka, with EUR105.56bn.
De très nombreuses questions sont posées aujourd’hui sur le calendrier, l’ordre, la façon dont la BCE sortira de la politique monétaire non conventionnelle. Ira-t-elle au terme de son programme d’achats de covered bonds ? Apposera-t-elle une marge aux prochaines opérations de financement long ? Quand prendront fin les procédures d’appel d’offre à taux fixe ? Regardons les choses en face : ces questions sont prématurées.
Ng Kok Song, director of investment for the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), has announced that the Singapore sovereign fund is planning to begin investing again. Its liquidity ratio currently stands at 8%, on USD200bn in assets, and the percentage of equities in its portfolio has fallen to 38% from 44%, largely due to sales of shares in industrialised countries, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. In the period ending on 31 March, assets fell by “more than 20%,” which reduced performance over 20 years to 2.6% in real terms. However, since the beginning of April, more than half of these losses have been offset.
Omega Gestión de Inversiones, la société de gestion d’Alicia Koplowitz, fait enregistrer par la CNMV le hedge fund Alphaville qui est doté initialement de 10 millions d’euros, rapporte Funds People. L’objectif est une performance de 12-15 % avec une volatilité moyenne d’environ 8 %, a indiqué Alberto Ruiz, le directeur général.La particularité de l’Alphaville, un fonds multistratégies, est de combiner l’investissement dans des fonds de performance absolue avec des placements en titres vifs sur les marchés obligataires et des actions.
Selon Hedge Week, HSBC Private Bank vient de nommer Chris Allen au poste de managing director et responsable de HSBC Alternative Investments, le pôle dédié aux hedge funds, aux mandats institutionnels et fonds de fonds pour le groupe HSBC et à l’investissement dans l’immobilier et le private equity pour HSBC Global Private Banking. Chris Allen est actuellement responsable de l’immobilier au sein de HSBC Alternative Investments.A compter du 1er janvier 2010, Chris Allen sera rattaché à l'échelon local à Nigel Webber, CIO de HSBC Global Private Banking et à Peter Rigg, responsable mondial de HSBC Alternative Investment Group.Chris Allen avait rejoint HSBC Alternative Investments en 2007 pour diriger son pôle immobilier.
Selon la Tribune qui cite Reuters, HSBC devrait céder ses bureaux de Londres, de New York et de Paris. La banque récupérerait 2 milliards de dollars, dont 500 millions de dollars pour le siège des Champs-Élysées.
Les actifs sous gestion d’ETF Securities viennent d’atteindre le niveau record de 10 milliards d’euros, sous l’effet d’un intérêt de plus en plus manifeste des investisseurs pour les actifs physiques alors que se détériorent la situation financière des Etats et que l’assouplissement quantitatif suscite des inquiétudes sur l’évolution du dollar et de la livre sterling notamment et sur les perspectives d’inflation à moyen terme.